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There isn't propaganda. I guess people say there is, because conspiracy theories are more fun than fact. But strong statements like "TikTok is propaganda" need

There isn't propaganda. I guess people say there is, because conspiracy theories are more fun than fact. But strong statements like "TikTok is propaganda" need to be supported with evidence. I would say that the highly tailored experience of the TikTok algorithm would make a propaganda op quite easy to detect. The algorithm is so ridiculously good, that you would instantly spot a propaganda video, or notice when your feed begins to skew from what you like to see.

karaterobot 5y ago
Wasn't there something about how you couldn't find TikTok videos about the Hong Kong protests? Ahh, so the Guardian had some leaked moderation documents[1] implying there was an active moderation keeping them from being viewed. Buzzfeed said they did their own experiments and found no evidence that videos about Hong Kong were being removed[2]. I see no reason why both of those can't be true: if you control the algorithm, you don't need to delete anything, you can control with fine granularity how viral it's allowed to go. I guess that's a conspiracy theory, but for myself, I'm very skeptical that any media company operates in China with what most of us would call political neutrality and free speech. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-how-tiktok-censors-videos-that-do-not-please-beijing https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-... [2] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/tiktok-users-are-finally-posting-about-hong-kong-but-only https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/tiktok-us...
- xvector 5y ago
  I think it's much more likely that such videos don't rise to the top because it's not what TikTok's audience cares to engage with. I honestly don't know anyone that actually wants to see political content on TikTok (though, if you seek it out, you will find it.) It's simply not what the platform is for.
  - pope_meat 5y ago
    That's a very naive perspective, in my opinion. I wouldn't put it past tech giants in democratic nations not to tweak their algorithms to push their own political agenda, much less tech giants in non democratic nations. It's too powerful a tool not to abuse, I know it, and you know it too.
gruez 5y ago
>The algorithm is so ridiculously good, that you would instantly spot a propaganda video, or notice when your feed begins to skew from what you like to see. Would you notice it if they slowly ramped it up? How would you know whether it's grassroots or planted by the CCP?
- xvector 5y ago
  Yes, I think it would be absurdly easy to notice, because nothing in most people's feeds is remotely political. How exactly would you propagandize a stream of improv skits, or dance videos, or pet videos? Every user's feed is extremely specific and deviations, even small ones, are easy to notice.
est 5y ago
> There isn't propaganda There is. Tiktok China also got rid of all the political content because of the superior censorship algorithms.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
jollybean 5y ago
Many months ago I saw some Toks which had 'Huge Red Flags' - basically Chinese Nationals trying to convince of some obvious CCP policy - though I couldn't tell for sure if it was propaganda, it seemed like it. But haven't seen that in months. But otherwise I don't think they promote propaganda actively. But the difference between FB/Twitter and TT is the kinds of suppression they do. TT will remove anything that might remotely offend the sensibilities of the CCP.

karaterobot 5y ago

Wasn't there something about how you couldn't find TikTok videos about the Hong Kong protests? Ahh, so the Guardian had some leaked moderation documents[1] implying there was an active moderation keeping them from being viewed. Buzzfeed said they did their own experiments and found no evidence that videos about Hong Kong were being removed[2]. I see no reason why both of those can't be true: if you control the algorithm, you don't need to delete anything, you can control with fine granularity how viral it's allowed to go. I guess that's a conspiracy theory, but for myself, I'm very skeptical that any media company operates in China with what most of us would call political neutrality and free speech. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-how-tiktok-censors-videos-that-do-not-please-beijing https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-... [2] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/tiktok-users-are-finally-posting-about-hong-kong-but-only https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/tiktok-us...

xvector 5y ago
I think it's much more likely that such videos don't rise to the top because it's not what TikTok's audience cares to engage with. I honestly don't know anyone that actually wants to see political content on TikTok (though, if you seek it out, you will find it.) It's simply not what the platform is for.
- pope_meat 5y ago
  That's a very naive perspective, in my opinion. I wouldn't put it past tech giants in democratic nations not to tweak their algorithms to push their own political agenda, much less tech giants in non democratic nations. It's too powerful a tool not to abuse, I know it, and you know it too.

gruez 5y ago

>The algorithm is so ridiculously good, that you would instantly spot a propaganda video, or notice when your feed begins to skew from what you like to see. Would you notice it if they slowly ramped it up? How would you know whether it's grassroots or planted by the CCP?

xvector 5y ago
Yes, I think it would be absurdly easy to notice, because nothing in most people's feeds is remotely political. How exactly would you propagandize a stream of improv skits, or dance videos, or pet videos? Every user's feed is extremely specific and deviations, even small ones, are easy to notice.

est 5y ago

> There isn't propaganda There is. Tiktok China also got rid of all the political content because of the superior censorship algorithms.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

jollybean 5y ago

Many months ago I saw some Toks which had 'Huge Red Flags' - basically Chinese Nationals trying to convince of some obvious CCP policy - though I couldn't tell for sure if it was propaganda, it seemed like it. But haven't seen that in months. But otherwise I don't think they promote propaganda actively. But the difference between FB/Twitter and TT is the kinds of suppression they do. TT will remove anything that might remotely offend the sensibilities of the CCP.